Hendrickson is a walking beam set of axles suspended on one set of extended leafs. Good to keep things lively in the seat....
Camelback is an exlusive Mack suspension. The spring is shaped like a parabolic arch, and is attached to a pivot tube in the middle. The spring is the walking beam. They have a LOT of travel. Around here, they're noted for being exceptionally tough. Tough on the driver, tough on tires, and tough to break. It's a real kidney shaker of a system unless you run overweight all the time. Almost need to in order to smooth it out and hold the tires on the road....I'm not familiar with Hotchkins. Chalmers is a common builder of rubber block suspension. They mount a couple rubber blocks between a walking beam and the frame. Drives like a camelback on steroids.... If it was me, I'd go with air ride, all the way. My preference would be Holland Newway if I could get it. International seems to have a good air ride too (at least I haven't broken it yet). Freightliner's Airliner system would be last on my list I think (in terms of air ride). I had one, and ti rides nice, and carrys well.... but I've broken several springs with it, and know of other newer trucks with that system doing farm pickups (working in farms yards, tight manuvering etc), and they've broken those systems. Airliner uses an air bag on top of a spring, and the spring is responsible for tracking the axle, and those springs break under thrust. THat's what i've found anyway.
The IH system uses round bar for a track rod, and Newway uses a tubular underslung arm. I think there's a lot more strength in that system. However, given a choice, I'd take any air ride over any of the devils you listed above. There's no way I'd go back. Air Ride simply rides so smooth..... Rod
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